MARINA DI PIETRASANTA, Italy – A sound system that included Axiom and Powersoft gear played a supporting role in the production of the rock/pop musical, Rent, that brought this year's La Versiliana Festival to a close.
Alessandro Fava's Music Service of Livorno specified the gear for the production, which was directed by Paolo Ruffini and produced by Nido del Cuculo, a performing arts organization. Claudia Campolongo was the artistic director for the production, which included six musicians and 17 cast members who acted, sang and danced.
The gear included 14 Axiom AX3210P modules, 10 Edge121SP subwoofers, seven Powersoft K10 amplifiers, one Proel DSO26 digital processor and four Edge15CXPB monitors.
"The original version of this musical showed on Broadway for 12 straight years," noted sound designer Giuseppe Porcelli. "Those who know it are aware that its technical features make it absolutely unique. The plot's dynamics require the right mix between a band composed of a drum set, a bass guitar, two electric guitars, one acoustic guitar, a pad, a keyboard and a piano and 18 performers wearing either cardioid or omnidirectional DPA microphones.
"Love songs, acted scenes and veritable rock tunes alternate continuously and require for the audio system to adapt perfectly and homogeneously to the musical's varying dynamics," Porcelli added. "Proel's Axiom System's performance proved to be excellent even indoor, in its stacked configuration.
Edge121SP subs proved to be very supple in the bass section, and allowed us not to turn the event in a rock concert. Edge15CXPBs, which we used as front fill, gave us excellent coverage for the first rows. At the same time, they allowed us to move the sound image to the singers on stage, an opportunity we would have hardly had, had we hung the system on the outer stage wings or had we used smaller front fills.
"This set up was mounted by Fabio Gagliotta, stage sound engineer and P.A. man of the event, while I aligned and equalized it with the SATLive software," Porcelli added.
The cast included Alessandro Arcodia (VJ on MTV, host of TRL-On the Road, and a vocalist in R. Cocciante's Romeo and Juliet); Beatrice Baldaccini (Il Favoloso Mondo di Patty), Marco Gandolfi Vannini (Footloose), Elisa Marangon (Robin Hood), Gianluca Spatti (Chorus Line), Andrea "Ciro" Ferraro (Dè Rocky Horror) in the main roles.
The ensemble included Silvia Contenti (Robin Hood), Ada Doria (Welcome to the machine), Silvia Lemmi, Matteo Franchi, Letizia Legnaioli, Arianna Signorini, Luca Ricci and Filippo Sassano.
For more information, please visit www.proelgroup.com.
